Our time at Instanta is rapidly drawing to a close and the finishing line is almost in view as today marks the last day of our penultimate month of work. With just over four weeks to go this will possibly be my last conventional blog as I intend to devote the next few weeks to those people and businesses that have meant so much to us in our twenty odd years in this industry and some of the good, the bad and the ugly happenings during that time. In the meantime we'll stick with the usual mix of trivia and Instanta news that has been the hallmark of this blog for the last couple of years.
Tomorrow Marion and I are off down to the NEC for the Antiques For Everyone fair. I've mentioned it before but it really is a super fair and the only one that we go out of our way to visit. It does exactly what it says on the label and you can go and buy something for £1 or something for £100,000 and I love it for that. I also love the comfortable layout of wide aisles and the bright stands and the huge variety of things on display ranging from postcards and ephemera to grand paintings and sculptures. The fair is vetted by a committee so you won't find a hidden treasure but you also won't buy a fake. On Sunday I'll be popping out to a new antiques fair at Scarisbrick Village Hall where there will probably be a dozen dealers and maybe only half a dozen genuine antiques between them but the chance of finding a hidden gem will strangely be much higher. I hope that when we retire we'll get more chances to go antique hunting.
Craig is busily working on the figures for the end of October and I am pleased to say that we are, once again, up on the same month last year and there is no sign of a double dip recession here at the moment. I won't say on here who is top of the sales league but it has been a tight run race and we might have a photo finish.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the office we've got some new screens on trial. These are designed to keep noise down and allow people to concentrate on their work without too many distractions but I could see them coming into use for some new office games. We could have an Instanta ping pong tournament for example. Any other suggestions on a postcard please.
Jimmy Carr was extremely funny at Southport Theatre last night. The politically correct side of me says that I shouldn't be laughing at some of his material which could be described as misogynist but the women in the audience appeared to be genuinely amused and Marion was laughing along heartily so I suppose that's the crux of the matter. If we can accept that jokes about violence or being abusive to women are simply that - jokes, then it is funny but if we feel that the comedian is in any way condoning the actions that he ridicules then he may be overstepping the mark. Not a show for the faint hearted and I couldn't repeat any of Jimmy's jokes. Oh yes there was one. What have Alexander the Great and Winnie the Pooh got in common? - same middle name.
Now that Marion and I have a lot of free time on our hands perhaps we could go and renew our marriage vows in some exotic location. Or maybe not after watching this. I have put the expurgated version on here but if you search YouTube for Maldives Wedding you will find the full uncensored (and much worse) 14 minute version.
No comments:
Post a Comment